A survey by Shanghai-based CBP Career Consultants (China’s first career consulting company, set up in June 2004) shows that 52% of all Shanghai office workers has a weblog. And an additional 28% is thinking about setting up a blog. I am not sure how representative this survey is, because this seems an astonishingly high figure to me.

During the past weeks I did many job interviews with candidates for positions at Spill Group Asia, and most of them I asked if they have a weblog. Only about 1 in 5 told me they have one, but of course they may lie about this because their blogs may show a different side of them than they want to show me.

Interesting is also that an amazing 60% of the bloggers does not hesitate to blog about their frustations with their boss. I seems to be time to find out who of my employees has a blog, to see what they have to write about me 🙂

My former employer DaimlerChrysler has also jumped on the podcasting bandwagon and has started to produce podcasts to reach its customers. They have both video-podcasts (about dance, music, sports and design and of course full of product information) and audio-podcasts (an English language music program). The website in German can be found here.

Mercedes-Benz Italia also has its own (video)podcast, they introduce it as follows:
Benvenuti nel podcast Mercedes-Benz! State entrando in un universo di passione ed esclusività. Scoprite i nostri modelli, punte d’eccellenza nelle loro categorie, dalle berline compatte alle limousine, passando per i roadster e le sportivissime coupé.
I downloaded the first episode, it’s the commercial for the new M-Class. They also have one online for the R-Class.

You can directly subscribe to all of Mercedes-Benz’ podcasts through iTunes, just do a search for Mercedes-Benz.

I am glad to see that they are doing this, as many of you know I am a big fan of podcasting and I think it is an excellent (and cheap) way to reach your target group. In case any of my former colleagues at DaimlerChrysler China should read this and also wants to start a local podcast, please contact me and we can help you to set up a feed for this at Toodou.com

I like a bit of fresh air in the morning (if you can call the air in Shanghai fresh of course), but taxi drivers seem to be much bigger fans than I am. Whatever temperature it is, and whether it rains or not, they tend to open at least one window during the ride.

This morning was an extreme case: the driver that came to my place to pick me up, was sitting in his car reading the newspaper with all four windows open. And it was only 3 degrees outside! I assumed he would put the windows up when driving off, but I was wrong. In order not to end up with pneunomia I decided to do close the windows in the back seat myself and I asked the driver to do the same with the front ones. He reluctantly did so, but left his own window half open. Some things I will probably never understand.

Whether he likes it or not, Toodou’s Gary Wang is becoming a real star in China. This month he was featured in the Chinese version of Esquire magazine, in an article about Web2.0. The picture from the article can be found here. Esquire’s website is here. That reminds me, I don’t have your autograph yet Gary!

Several foreign companies have been the victim of fraud in China according to the Dutch embassy website. What happened is that these companies receive a proposal for a large order from a Chinese company that they have never done business with before. They are then asked to come to China to sign the contract for this order. Once in China they need to pay for dinners, presents and some ‘administrative fees’. But after that the Chinese partner suddenly disappears, or after the business person is back home he is not able to contact the Chinese party anymore.

I am not surprised about this, although it certainly is the exception rather than the rule. So many foreign companies seem to think that doing business in China is just like doing business at home. But although some aspects are the same, this is not a country where you will sign a contract during a first trip, and certainly not if you get to know a company over the internet.

I heard several similar stories over the past years, and I always wonder why these foreign companies do not prepare themselves a bit more in order to make sure that they are not being fooled. It is not so very difficult to check out your business partner in China, and some advice before or during negotiations can save you tons of money and frustration. My company China Bay (www.china-bay.com, email: info@china-bay.com) can help with this, or you can ask your embassy in China to provide you with names of consultancy or law firms that provide this kind of services. Don’t be afraid to do business in China, just be well prepared!

The Rolling Stones plan to give a concert in Shanghai next month. There will be one show on April 8, on the Shanghai Grand Stage. Prices for the 8000-people event range from RMB 300 to RMB 3000. The last time the Stones planned to play in mainland China was in 2003, but then the concert was cancelled because of SARS.

A villager from central China whose daughter was murdered 6 years ago, kept her body in a refrigator for all that time. He felt the criminal responsible for the murder did not get enough punishment, so what do you do then? Simple, you travel to Beijing with the corpse and tie it to a 10-meter high billboard in the Chaoyang business district during the Monday morning rush hour. After 2 hours (!) witnesses called the police, who would investigate the matter.

Update: sina.com has some pictures (via Shanghaiist)